Sioux City, IA (August 1, 2021) – The Sioux City Explorers took full advantage of six Gary SouthShore RailCats errors on Sunday afternoon in a 12-5 win. 

The mistakes started early as Chase Harris led off with an infield single. He stole second and then third. On the steal of third the catcher’s throw ended up in left field allowing Harris to score. 

After back to back walks and a fly out it looked like the RailCats would end the inning on a double play ball. But the throw to second was dropped, resulting in a second error in the frame and a single and sacrifice fly handed the X’s a 3-0 lead. 

Sioux City added to that margin in the second. A walk and a single with two outs, brought up LT Tolbert. He hit a routine ground ball to short, where the throw from Tom Walraven was high, the first baseman Tommy McCarthy leapt to catch the throw but upon applying the tag on Tolbert, the ball popped free from his glove allowing two runs to score giving Sioux City a 5-0 lead. 

Gary would chip away at that deficit scoring twice in the third on a Daniel Lingua single and a McCarthy sac fly. 

They plated another in the fifth as Zach Welz led off the inning with a double, he scored on a Jesus Marriaga ground out to pull the Cats to 5-3. 

But the Explorers immediately responded in the bottom half of the fifth inning. Lane Milligan scored from first after his lead off walk on a Joseph Monge double. Monge would score on a Chase Harris ground out on what should have been the third out of the inning, but another Gary error allowed the inning to continue. The X’s then used a Chris Clare double and a Tolbert double to finish off the four run rally to go up 9-3. 

John Sheaks (0-4) was handed the loss for the RailCats as he went four and one-third innings, surrendering six hits and seven runs although only three of them were earned. He walked five and struck out two. 

Picking up the win for the X’s was starting pitcher Brett Adcock (3-7) as he took his first victory in a month since July 1st. He went six innings allowing three runs on five hits allowing just one single walk and striking out four. 

A sixth and final error kicked off the bottom of the eighth for the Explorers. Which allowed the inning to reach Monge with two men aboard who hit a three run home run to finish off Sioux City’s 12-5 win. Monge on the day had three hits, all for extra bases with two doubles and a home run and four RBI. 

Sioux City finishes their nine game home stand with a 7-2 record.

The X’s will now have Monday off before being the first team to travel across the border to play the Winnipeg Goldeyes at Shaw Park in a three game series that starts in Tuesday night at 6:30 pm. 

Boxscore

By Connor Ryan, Sioux City Explorers